A Smart Way to Advertise
The benefits of using advertising specialties to get your message out.
In 1955 James Dean caused a sensation in the movie “Rebel Without A Cause”. His sensitive yet smoldering acting style had a lot to do with it, but his clothing also played a part. Dean’s outfit of white t-shirt, blue jeans, and red jacket became an overnight fad, and before long every teenager in America wanted to dress like that.
If you’ve seen pictures of Dean in that outfit, you’ll realize one thing that looks odd today – there’s no logo or advertising slogan on the t-shirt or the jacket. They’re blank.
I grew up in the 1950s, and I remember that most articles of clothing were blank at that time. T-shirts might have had a school emblem or logo on them, but the vast majority of them had nothing. Caps, unless they were for a major league baseball team or a farm equipment company like John Deere, were also blank.
It was in the Days Before Advertising. Back then, people accepted their advertising in books, magazines, billboards, or commercials on television or radio. They did not, however, want to be a walking billboard for the local pizza shop, or any other business. It was considered bad taste, for one thing.
My, how times have changed. These days you’d probably attract attention if you walked around without any advertising on your clothes. The industry that is responsible for a large portion of this wearable advertising is known as the advertising specialty industry. And it’s a very large industry indeed. In 2006, the total U.S. sales for this industry were $18.6 billion dollars, and apparel sales represented about a third of that. Advertising specialties now include just about anything that can be imprinted with an advertising message or logo, including: pens, bumper stickers, keychains, coffee mugs, computer mouse pads, and even high-end items like leather goods and electronics. Some of the more expensive products are used as business gifts, but for the most part even they have some type of company logo or message on them, although it’s usually a discreet one.
The advertising specialty field is growing at a faster rate than traditional newspaper or radio advertising, and there’s more money spent on it than on Internet and cable TV advertising, among others.
I’m betting that the industry will continue to do well even in the current poor economy. Why? Because these products offer a cost-effective way to advertise. It doesn’t cost much to put a company’s name on a t-shirt, but when somebody wears that shirt they’re advertising the company to everyone they meet. And items like baseball caps, keychains, paperweights, and bumper stickers can keep on advertising for years. Compare that with a 30-second radio commercial, or a newspaper ad that gets thrown away after one day.
If you’re a businessperson who’s considering how to get the most bang for your advertising and promotional buck, you may want to consider investing in some advertising specialties. You can find advertising specialty distributors by simply looking in the Yellow Pages, or visiting the Web site of the Advertising Specialty Institute, an industry organization.
I don’t know what James Dean would think if he were still alive, but I do know that no teen idol today would be caught dead in a blank t-shirt.
7 Comments
Very interesting piece here John. I guess I never really thought about clothing without labels let alone its influence on consumers. Good work.
I found RJ’s comment interesting. I am just the opposite. I don’t very often wear anything with labels, but then again, I don’t care for stripes or prints much either. I tend to stick with the monochromatic look.
I think that the information overload of having so much advertising around us may be relative to the number of people with illnesses like OCD, ADD and ADHD in our current world, but it’s only a guess.
Anyway, that’s another rant for another day. I loved the article, great content, concise, clear and informative. Great write!
-M
This is really something to think about. Can you imagine teens today that are not defined by clothing and labels? I am sure we would not have all of the self-esteem and self-confidence issues if kids were defining themselves vs. allowing a name brand do it for them.
And revolutionary Che Guevara would be rolling dervishly in his grave if he saw those T-shirts with his black & white image of his face emblazoned upon it! This anti-Capitalist is now the ‘hip thing’ to wear on T-shirts, it seems…
That’s really interesting–and well written!
Inna
Hundreds of actors and actresses, teen idols, and icons are going logoless… American apparel, made 300 million dollars last year making logoless gear… I am certain that a percentage of the profits made were by selling blanks that logos could be printed on. However there are companies like Alternative Apparel, Bella, Next Level and several others who stay in business by promoting the “blank look” Check out thefivefingerdiscount.com to get an idea of what blanks sell these days.
Nice idea but was lost in the paragraphy. Would liked seeing clearer formatting. Headings? Cheers . j